Nowhere was a single drunken man to be found, it was as though there never had been such a thing among the Cossacks.

Some attended to the tyres of the wheels, others changed the axles of the waggons; some carried sacks of provisions to them or leaded them with arms; others again drove up the horses and oxen.

On all sides resounded the tramp of horses' hoofs, test-shots from the guns, the clank of swords, the lowing of oxen, the screech of rolling waggons, talking, sharp cries and urging-on of cattle.

Soon the Cossack force spread far over all the plain; and he who might have undertaken to run from its van to its rear would have had a long course.

In the little wooden church the priest was offering up prayers and sprinkling all worshippers with holy water.